The criminal case accusing former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy nearly 50 years ago was thrown out Wednesday by a Massachusetts judge, who found the disgraced Roman Catholic leader unfit to stand trial due to insanity.
Dedham District Court Judge Paul McCallum dismissed the case after McCarrick’s lawyers presented the findings of a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences that his client has dementia likely caused by Alzheimer’s disease.
Psychologist Kerry Nelligan, brought to the stand Wednesday by prosecutors, agreed that the 93-year-old was unfit to stand trial due to “serious cognitive impairments.”
McCarrick, the only U.S. cardinal to be criminally charged with child sexual abuse, faced three counts of indecent assault and battery in a case dating back to 1974. He pleaded not guilty in September 2021.
The accused predator priest, who lives in Missouri, touched the boy’s genitals during the teen’s brother’s wedding reception at Wellesley College, prosecutors alleged.
Disgraced former Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was declared unfit to stand trial due to dementia on Wednesday.AP
Massachusetts Judge Paul McCallum on Wednesday dismissed the criminal case against McCarrick following expert testimony that the former clergyman suffered from dementia and cognitive decline.
The former archbishop of Newark and Washington DC, who was ousted from the priesthood over sexual abuse allegations, also faces a criminal case in Wisconsin and lawsuits brought by other men who claimed they were abused as children between the 1970s and 1990s.
The statute of limitations prevented criminal charges from being filed alongside civil cases.
The Vatican admitted that Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II had known about the sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick for years, but did not intervene, and John Paul even promoted the accused scoundrel.
McCarrick was criminally charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy in 1974.AP
McCarrick is also criminally charged in Wisconsin and faces a series of lawsuits from men who claim he sexually abused them.EPA
The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, was the one who launched an investigation into McCarrick by the Archdiocese of New York review board, which found the allegations to be “credible and substantial.”
Pope Francis ousted McCarrick in 2019 after Vatican officials found him guilty of seeking sex while hearing confessions from minors and adults.
The Wisconsin case is still pending and a hearing is scheduled for September 18.
McCarrick has yet to plead guilty in that case.
with postal wires
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn